Tweed property prices on rise

THE residential property mar- ket around the Tweed appears to be picking up steam again after a relatively quiet year. Real-estate agents around the Tweed Heads area have reported an increase in inqui- ries in the first week of the new year, especially in the past few days. And their outlook for 2005 is positive as sea-changers and investors continue their attraction with the Tweed. Elders Coolangatta-Tweed sales manager Chris Holt said the market had been relative- ly quiet but there had been some sales recently in the $400,000 to $800,000 price range. Late last year, Mr Holt said, the market appeared to pick up and his agency sold 11 properties.

"Everyone else was saying they were dead but we had a period where we sold seven in two weeks at the end of November," he said. "The Christmas-New Year period was very quiet and we hardly had any calls, but in the past couple of days defi- nitely, people have been walk- ing into offices making inqui- ries and looking for properties in all ranges. "We're in a great area, people will always want to live here, but it got a bit too expensive too quickly. "But it's a good outlook for this year - people have just got to listen to what people are prepared to pay if they want to sell. "Properties are still selling for good prices - it's just that people's expectations were too

high," Mr Holt said. Daniel Newell, a salesman at First National Real Estate at Tweed Heads South, said the market had been "jump- ing around a little bit" and went quiet during the Christ- mas break, but he was confi- dent it would pick up again. The market bracket be- tween $400,000 and $800,000, Mr Newell said, had certainly slowed down last year but the first-home-owners bracket of between $250,000 and $350,000 was "still turning over quite regularly". Properties over $800,000 were also still turning over. "It's picking up this month?.?.?.?it's that time of year when people are plan- ning to relocate or have their kids enrolled at a new school," he said.